Derailment delays train services for over 14 hours

Around 10 long distance trains were cancelled due to the incident and several trains were rescheduled or short-terminated due to the incident

Mumbai Local train services on main Central Railways (CR) between CSMT and Kalyan were affected for over 14 hours after the derailment of three coaches of a mail train on Friday night. However, no injuries were reported in the incident.

Shivani Sutar, Chief Public Relations officer of Central Railways, said, “A departmental enquiry will be conducted to ascertain what led to the incident. The report will answer the question of whether it was human error or not.” (HT PHOTO)

Railway officials said that there will be investigation if human error caused the collision.

Around 10 long distance trains were cancelled due to the incident and several trains were rescheduled or short-terminated due to the incident.

At 9.45 pm on Friday night , three rear end coaches of Dadar-Puducherry Express derailed near Matunga railway station. According to the railway officials, prima facie it seems that the derailment took place due to signal passed at danger (SPAD) when it was red for the Gadgad Express that departed from platform no 7 and the Dadar-Puducherry Express that left from Platform No 5. But the exact cause will be known after a detailed enquiry.

Due to SPAD, the train hit the Express. However, considering both the trains were at low speed, the damage was minimal and there were no injuries. The senior Central Railway officials said the enquiry into the incident has been ordered, and said prima facie it may be human error, but cannot be confirmed.

Shivani Sutar, Chief Public Relations officer of Central Railways, said, “A departmental enquiry will be conducted to ascertain what led to the incident. The report will answer the question of whether it was human error or not.”

Sutar added, “As per our general procedure, after any accident, the pilot or the motorman is kept away from duty. In this incident too, the same has followed.”

In a letter issued by the chief crew controller of the loco pilot, it stated, “While working on train no 11139, the loco pilot and assistant loco pilot failed to observe red aspects of signal. Consequently, there was a side collision.”

Around 300 to 400 railway personnel were present at the site where the re-railment work was going on till Saturday morning. An official said, “One of the three coaches that derailed was re-railed in the night hours but remaining took time as there were technical challenges.”

Due to the derailment, local train services were briefly suspended between the CSMT and Dadar railway station. As overhead wires are shut down owing to the derailment, local trains on Central Railway are operating with delays.

According to railway officials, at around 10.45 pm, both slow lines up and down between CSMT and Kalyan were made operational. The up-fast line between Kalyan and CSMT was made operational at around 8.30 am on Saturday morning and by noon on Saturday, the down-fast line was made operational and services were pushed towards normalcy.

However, several slow and fast trains were running at a delay of 15 to 20 minutes and there was a lot of crowding at several suburban stations on Saturday morning. Due to this, the CR ran bus services from Thane and Mulund towards CSMT to decongest suburban railway stations.

Meanwhile, Shivaji Sutar, Chief Public Relations officer, also tweeted, “Restoration work has been completed and first train on affected down fast line 22159 CSMT- Chennai passing Matunga station at 1.10pm All lines are restored.”